Posts Tagged cairo
Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on November 14th, 2008 - Read comments and add your own
I met Spartacus when I first got to Egypt and was looking for a job. She is an imposing personage. I tend to have a different experience of Egypt from her, for reasons you will no doubt understand from the following excerpt of an interview I held with her. We are obviously touching here on issues of gender and race. Whereas I agree that one shouldn’t generalize to the point of being prejudiced, I do hope the reader will be open minded about the events here related. Every truth is partial, and there is much truth to what Spartacus has to say. She has been living in Egypt, off and on, for the majority of the last decade, and by that very fact she deserves the respect of anyone who seriously wishes to understand this deeply troubled country.
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Posted by LoveHowlMuse on August 9th, 2008 - Add a comment
Here’s a joke about politics. A man climbs the Kaaba during Ramadan (for Muslims, the Kaaba is the nearest point to heaven). He won’t come down unless Hosni Mubarak (the Egyptian President) comes in person to ask him. The authorities call Mubarak, and he arrives. Mubarak says, “son, come down from there.” The man says that Mubarak has to come up first. As soon as he does, the man lifts him up and yells to the sky “take him!”
Traditionally, Egypt had local Imams they could go to if they had political problems. The Imams had great power in the establishment. When this model was replaced by Western parliamentarianism, it was unclear to Egyptians how they would interact with the government. Political activism is alive in Egypt, but there is a cultural drag on it because of this history.
However, what is really stifling Egypt at the moment is Mubarak. Several years ago presidential elections were held. Mubarak was opposed by Ayman Nour. Originally Nour was a stooge of Mubarak’s that they picked to put on a show of having another candidate, but he rebelled and actually tried to win the election. For his pains he was put in prison for forging signatures – but how many signatures did Mubarak forge? Given that there was no real opposition to Mubarak you could argue that the entire election was forged.
Egypt is waiting for Mubarak to die.
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Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on July 13th, 2008 - Add a comment
Ninety-seven percent of women in Egypt have had some sort of genital mutilation. The majority of these cases are Type 1, clitoridectomy, involving the removal of the prepuce (clitoral hood). A smaller percentage involve complete removal of the clitoris, and an even smaller minority involve the removal of part or whole of the labia. According to polls, this practice is embraced by men and women of all races and religions in Egypt.
Five years ago almost no women in Egypt wore the headscarf (hijab). Now they nearly all wear it. A man cannot address a woman in public. Marriages are arranged, and the couple usually meet under parental supervision. Women are subordinate to men, and a woman whose honor is in question, through infidelity, rape or pre-marital promiscuity, may be killed by her family so that they save face. Without honor, a man cannot find work, and his entire family will bear the shame.
In 1979 a law passed to protect women’s rights made it more difficult to marry several women, and more difficult to divorce. In 1985 another law reversed the earlier 1979 law. But I ask you, is a law that protects a woman’s right to an inherently one-sided relationship really a protection of her rights? It still remained nearly impossible for a woman to ask for a divorce.
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Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on June 30th, 2008 - Read comments and add your own
“This place is ready to explode,” she said to me with great relish. Her name was Karen or something, and I stood there having a nice conversation with her and her fiancee. They were from northern California. At that moment we were in an art gallery during the opening of a new collection of photographs of graffiti. She was really excited by the idea that Cairo was on the verge of violent revolt.
I am not convinced. However, I left her with her enthusiasm. People need drama. They really will die without it. Have you ever met someone without any sense of passion or imagination? Zombies are real.
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